


love in the time of the black plague

by crispierchip



Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: Animal Transformation, Humor, M/M, tk is an honest to god rat, what could be better
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-12
Updated: 2020-04-12
Packaged: 2021-02-26 17:31:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23603914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crispierchip/pseuds/crispierchip
Summary: Nolan takes a breath. The bag moves again. He reaches out and just - snatches it, real quick, and - there’s a fuckingratin his trash. A rat, in his trash, looking up at him, and - Nolan is not proud of it, okay, but he fuckingscreams.
Relationships: Travis Konecny/Nolan Patrick
Comments: 58
Kudos: 343





	love in the time of the black plague

**Author's Note:**

> so I thought, basically, well nolan is scared of mice and tk is a rat, it would be quite the character development for nolan to go from being afraid of rats to being in love with one :'') then I joke tweeted abt it and went ahead and wrote it lol
> 
> huge thanks to jen who had to do the work on this twice bc of technical issues, and also told me this was funny when I needed to hear it. youre the best <3

Nolan wakes up alone. This shouldn’t be as much as a problem as it is, but he went to bed with Travis last night, after literal years of dancing around each other, and Nolan was looking pretty forward to waking up with him. Sue him. 

The sheets beside him are cold, though, the covers pulled back, so Travis must have left a while ago. It’s whatever. He could have at least told Nolan he was only looking to get his dick wet - not that Nolan would have walked away from him or anything like that, but he at least would have had the time to prepare for the prospect of waking up without Travis next to him. 

But like he said, it’s whatever. 

Nolan huffs out a breath and violently shoves the covers off himself, decides to go make some coffee and drink it black so it can match his mood. God, what was he  _ thinking _ ? Not what was he thinking falling for Travis, because Nolan had no control over that, no, Travis and his stupid mouth that was constantly running and his arms and his heart -  _ ew  _ \- made sure of that but -

Nolan should have known better than to go to bed with him. He should have at least demanded they talk about it, discuss what they wanted, though now that he thinks about it he was kind of busy with Travis’ tongue down his throat and as such didn’t have time for questions. And of course Travis would decide to keep quiet about the most important thing, jesus. 

Nolan is cursing both himself and Travis as he makes his way to the kitchen, then shoots some choice words at Travis in his head as he gets the coffee maker going. He hears a faint rustling noise but chalks it up to the coffee maker wheezing to life, going instead to reach for the eggs. He takes the last four out and goes to throw the carton in the trash when he sees -

His thrash moves. Nolan wouldn't say he’s the best functioning adult in the world but he's pretty sure his trash should not be moving right now. He hastily tries to remember if he threw something  _ alive  _ in there, but the closest he can think is the chicken Kevin had a couple of days ago, and yes, it’s been there for a while but not long enough to turn into a  _ zombie _ . 

Or that’s what Nolan thinks, at least. He cautiously makes his way over to the trash, even more carefully opens the lid, and - the bag of chips on the top definitely moved. God, Nolan will legitimately not be okay if Kevin’s chicken turned into a zombie, he’s going to fucking cry and have to call his mom and she’ll scold him again about taking out the trash and then Nolan will have an earful of his mother and a handful of zombified chicken, and this is just not how he imagined his morning going. 

Nolan takes a breath. The bag moves again. He reaches out and just - snatches it, real quick, and - there’s a fucking  _ rat  _ in his trash. A rat, in his trash, looking up at him, and - Nolan is not proud of it, okay, but he fucking  _ screams _ . 

That must scare the rat, Nolan thinks distantly. He goes to take his foot off the pedal, maybe hoping to at least contain the rat in the trash bag and then throw out the trash bag, the trashcan and possibly his and Kevin’s whole ass house. The rat is fucking quick though; it climbs to the top of the trash pile and jumps out of the trash can, onto Nolan’s kitchen floor, scattering trash all over the place, and Nolan tries to step away so fast that he slips and drops on his ass. 

The rat, like, stares at the whole thing. It’s got its little fists curled and is looking at Nolan with what Nolan can only imagine to be curiousity, and then it - it makes a fucking noise. Like a snicker. Nolan screams again, starts to drag his body away from the rat, and the rat just - makes a high pitched noise and starts following him. 

God, Nolan is losing it. He thinks it must be the migraines, it has to be, maybe some residual side effects from the meds or something. Probably hallucinations, hallucinations make more sense than a rat that is currently laughing in Nolan’s face.

So Nolan closes his eyes, tells himself that the rat will be gone once he opens them again. Takes three breaths and just peeks one eye open to see and the rat - the rat is sitting on its hind feet fucking looking at him again, head tilted to the side and nose moving as if it’s sniffing - probably Nolan’s fear or something - and Nolan gets the fuck out of his own house.

+

Okay so being driven out of your own house by a rat is not very dignified, Nolan decides once he’s had some time to think it over. He’s a grown ass man, a six foot tall grown ass man, he can handle a single rat. Probably, though now is no time for doubt. 

Nolan takes a breath and heads for Kevin’s garden shed, fully aware that he’s spent the whole time that he’s been living with Kevin making fun of the garden shed, so it figures that it would be karma or some shit that he’d come to need it at some point. He’s about to open the door to get inside when he gets the terrifying thought that maybe the garden shed is where the rat came from, and that’s enough to shoot that idea down. 

Nolan will just have to make do with what he has at his disposal sans the garden shed. Which means, regrettably, a mop, the one their housekeeper uses for the deck outside, the bucket that goes with it and the pillows from the garden chairs. He grabs the rope that Kevin’s decorator used to hang up the little candle lanterns, too, and putting that all together he's got himself a full set of armor. 

Nolan puts the pillows on his chest, uses the ropes to tie them around himself and keep them steady, and puts the bucket on his left hand. On his right hand he grabs onto the mop, and heads back for the door. He debates once he’s got his right hand on the knob that maybe he should have thought to grab something for his head, maybe a lantern or something, but he decides his peripheral vision is more important; rats are sneaky, after all.

So Nolan goes back in the house, all decked out in armor, but there is only one problem: the rat is nowhere to be found. Nolan looks in the trash, in the cupboards, under the fucking couch, but he just can’t find it for the life of him. He puts the bucket down eventually because his arm is starting to sweat, even starts untying the pillow-armor off his front because he figures the rat must have run outside, maybe back to the garden shed. Nolan makes a mental note to tell Kevin about the shed and how he really should go take a look in there. 

He starts to put the mop down and that’s when the rat has the nerve to show up. It sneaks its head around the corner of the hallway and the fucker was probably just waiting for Nolan to be all vulnerable so he could make his move. Figures; rodents.

Nolan will not be deterred, though. He grabs onto the mop again, starts to approach the rat slowly, even manages to get it to take a skittish step back and is just starting to think maybe he can push him back to the door like this when the rat fucking pounces on him. 

There is no other word for it, the rat jumps forward and pretty soon - and Nolan is not proud of this, okay, he’s not proud of a lot of things from the past hour - but the rat starts chasing  _ him  _ around. It’s fast, too, fuck, and Nolan is still half wearing the pillows so those are weighing him down and he starts knocking things over as the rat chases him around the house, sweating profusely because he’s pretty sure this rat is out to bite him and that’s how the balck plague started. 

That’s how Kevin finds him a few minutes later; sweaty with the pillows still on his chest, the mop in his hand and being chased by an objectively big rodent. 

Kevin says, “Patty, what the actual - ” and then he spots the rodent and takes a step back. “What the fuck is that?” he squeaks, voice all panicky and high, an expression of true terror on his face. 

The rat for its part looks delighted to see Kevin, sitting back on its hind feet again and looking up at them, nozzle moving rapidly. Then he makes that sound again, a  _ snicker _ , and Nolan has just enough time to jump and latch himself onto Kevin before the rat fucking gets him. 

Kevin has core strength, thank god, so they don’t fall, just sway, and then the rat is hissing and Kevin and Nolan are both screaming, and Nolan would have taken the zombified chicken, right about now. 

+

Nolan doesn’t let go of Kevin until they’re safely outside the house with no rat in sight. He knows it’s only a temporary solution but he’ll take it for now, he thinks as he starts shedding the pillows and the rope. 

Kevin, for his part, is pacing up and down their porch, hair a mess from where he’s run his fingers through it too many times. Nolan is just starting to consider how he’s going to convince him to take one for the team and go take care of the rat when Kevin stops abruptly, turning to look at Nolan with an almost frantic look on his face. 

“G,” he says, which objectively doesn’t say much. “Didn’t they have rats? Like he was talking about it at the start of the season, how they moved into the new house and found a rat,” Kevin explains, after a moment. 

“Dude,” Nolan says, long and drawn out. “Yes! You are a fucking genius,” he says, reaching for his phone. 

+

G, inexplicably, asks for a photo of the rat. Those are his exact words when he calls Nolan after the text Nolan sends him. 

“What do you want a photo for?” Nolan mutters, because there’s a literal rodent in his house, a big one too, and Nolan is pretty sure the rodent wants to eat him alive. 

G makes an annoyed sound on the other end of the line. “Do you want my help or not?” he asks, which, okay, he has a point. 

Nolan hangs up the phone, promising to get him a photo, and goes to relay the news to Kevin. 

“I’m not fucking going near that thing,” are the first words out of Kevin’s mouth, before Nolan is even done telling him what G needs them to do. 

Nolan purses his lips. “That thing is gonna eat its way through  _ your  _ carpets,” he says with a shrugs. 

Kevin gives an angry look and grabs Nolan’s phone from his hand. “Fine,” he spits out. Then, softer, “Be ready to call 911,” which Nolan might have thought was an overreaction had he not seen the rat. 

As it is, he nods solemnly, and puts his hand on the door knob, ready when Kevin is. Kevin opens the camera app on Nolan’s phone and then drags the top of his t-shirt over his face as if the rat is going to gas him or something, which might be a  _ slight  _ overreaction. 

“Go,” Kevin tells him, very serious, and Nolan nods and opens the door. He holds it open but doesn’t peek inside to check, content to hear Kevin  _ pspsps’ing _ the rat over to him, then asking it to please stay still, and then shriek when the rat presumably attacks him. 

Kevin’s eyes are wide when he comes back out, and he takes a moment to just breathe against the door. Then he hands Nolan his phone back and tells him, “You know what you have to do.”

Nolan sends the shaky, blurry pictures to G as well as a clear one, and G calls him back almost immediately. “You idiot,” he says, “That’s not a fucking rat, that’s TK.”

+

In retrospect, Nolan should have figured it out. What rat in its right mind chases humans way larger than him around asking for a fight? TK the rat, apparently - which honestly is not that much different from TK the human. 

_Perfect_, Nolan thinks, and goes to open the door to the house. He’s calmer this time, only because G had taken the time to explain to him what exactly this transformation meant, and he’d used a lot of words like _anxiety_ and _stressful_ _situation_ and Nolan’s least favorite word of all: _feelings_. 

But if sex with Nolan made TK turn into a rat the least Nolan can do is, like, assure TK’s ratty form that it’s all going to be okay. Which is harder than it sounds, mostly because Nolan still has to find him. He looks through the kitchen first, then  _ pspsps’s _ his way through the house before finally spotting the rat on his and Kevin’s couch. 

The rat -  _ TK _ , fuck, Nolan needs to gets used to this - is lying on his back with his tiny pink legs thrown in the air, and he looks - kind of sad, honestly. Lonely. 

“Hey, bud,” Nolan says, tentative, and TK turns to give him a sniffle. “Sorry I freaked out earlier,” Nolan goes on. He looks at the spot next to TK and asks, “Mind if I sit?”

Nolan is not actually sure what he’s expecting in the way of an answer, but TK shifts to the side a little, much like human TK would do. 

On the phone, G had said that contact helped in these types of situations, so Nolan makes sure to sit close to TK but not so close that he’s smothering him. TK the rat looks pleased by this turn of events. He sniffs at Nolan’s shorts and curls up close to him, and Nolan only shivers in fear a little bit.

“So, uhm,” Nolan struggles for words. Usually it’s TK carrying the conversation between them, making Nolan laugh even when he feels like shit. Nolan supposes this is as good a time as any to return the favor. “Heard you might have gotten stressed out,” he says. “That’s cool.”

TK the rat is watching him carefully from his sport next to Nolan’s thigh, and Nolan clears his throat. “I was kind of sad, when I woke up alone,” he says, and that’s hard as fuck to get out. Maybe it helps that TK can’t talk back to him, though Nolan can still see his ratty eyes widen, his nose pause its sniffing for a moment. 

“I’ve liked you for a while, actually,” Nolan forces himself to say through gritted teeth, follows it up with, “Really hoping you feel the same right now because otherwise this would be so fucking embarrassing, jesus.”

Nolan is not expecting a monumental response or anything, but TK the rat makes this high noise that sounds happy, and then he actually starts climbing his way under Nolan’s shirt, up his chest. It tickles like fuck but Nolan can hear TK’s rat snickers the whole time, and then the rat reaches Nolan’s shoulder. Nolan tries to keep as still as possible because he doesn’t want TK the rat to lose his balance and get hurt.

“Hey, excited, huh?” he murmurs, reaches out to pet a gentle hand over TK’s spine. 

TK makes a happy noise and touches his little nose to Nolan’s neck. Nolan thinks TK could bite him right now, and maybe that’s how love in the time of the black plague could start.

+

Nolan falls asleep, at some point. He’s put Netflix up on the TV and gotten horizontal, TK the rat curled safely on his chest. That’s the last thing Nolan remembers, and then he wakes up to something really heavy on his chest. He almost chokes with the weight of it, and when he opens his eyes it’s TK the human lying on top of him. 

TK's hair is tousled and all over the place, and he’s looking at Nolan kind of sleepily. Then he looks down at himself and lets out a breath, relieved. “Holy shit,” he says, starting to get up. “I’m back!”

Nolan makes a vague grumbling noise because on the one hand, he was choking before but on the other, TK was kind of warm. “Guess you are,” he says. He wants to be nervous about what he said, about what’s going to happen between them, but he doesn’t even have the time. 

TK takes one look at Nolan’s - probably grumpy - face and lies back on top of him. Nolan’s breath leaves him in a whoosh but his arms come around TK because he doesn't want TK the human to lose his balance either. 

“Hey you,” TK says, the loser. Nolan hates how into him he is. 

Which brings him to his question, actually. “How much - do you remember anything from when you were a rat?” he asks, because G had said TK would remember everything but Noan doesn’t want to mess this up. 

TK grins. “I remember you saying you were sad that you woke up alone,” he says. 

Nolan groans but his arms tighten around TK. “Fuck you,” he says. 

TK grins at him some more and then his face softens. “Me too,” he says. 

Nolan gives him a questioning look, his heart suddenly pounding in his chest. “Huh?” he asks dumbly.

TK rolls his eyes. “I’ve liked you for a while, too,” he says. 

“Oh,” Nolan says, even more dumb now. “That’s… neat,” he manages. 

TK laughs. “Neat,” he parrots, indignant. “I’ll show you neat,” he says, tackling him to the floor, and he does. Shows Nolan neat many, many times. 

+

They're in Nolan’s bed post-shower when they hear Kevin scream all the way from the kitchen. “Konecny, why the fuck is your trash still on my floor?”

Travis throws his head back against Nolan’s pillow and laughs. “Throw away your fucking chicken, Haysie,” he calls back.

**Author's Note:**

> thank u for reading!! I am on twitter @ hearteyesmofo if u want to be frands!!

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[podfic] Love in the Time of the Black Plague](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23773255) by [Annapods](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Annapods/pseuds/Annapods)


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